Novak Djokovic reappeared at the Masters 1000 in Monte Carlo and lost in his debut for the first time in four years

* The defeat of Novak Djokovic

Despite the fact that mathematics still smiles at him and allows him to remain number 1 in the world despite his poor activity, Novak Djokovic is facing one of the most difficult starts of his professional career. After the scandal at the Australian Open, the Serbian spent more than two months without playing and reappeared at the Masters 1000 in Monte Carlo with a defeat: he fell in his first match of a tournament after four years.

Spaniard Alejandro Davidovich Fokina won 6-3, 6-7 (5) and 6-1 after almost three hours of action in this match corresponding to the second round of the important tournament on brick dust. The last time Nole had been defeated in his first match of a tournament was in April 2018 when he lost to Slovakia's Martin Klizan in the second phase of Barcelona's ATP 500 (2-6, 6-1 and 3-6).

Regardless of the big scandal that his appearance in Australia meant to try to play the first Grand Slam of the season, Djokovic missed several presentations as a result of his refusal to receive the coronavirus vaccine and had only one formal appearance in 2022: he reached the quarterfinals of the ATP 500 in Dubai at the end of February and fell against the Checho Jiri Vesely.

Anyway, and despite the fact that he gave up the world number 1 in the hands of Russian Daniil Medvedev for two weeks, Nole landed in this Masters 1000 as the number 1 racket in the ranking despite not playing as the numbers backed it up. It should be noted that since that April 2018, the worst results of had been three defeats in their second matches at the Masters 1000 in Madrid (2018), Indian Wells (2018) and Monte Carlo (2021). Then, he always advanced beyond that second match in every tournament he played.

Thanks to being at the top of the ranking for several years, Djokovic often starts his participation in the second round of the tournaments and in Monte Carlo was no exception. The Spaniard, 22 years old and 46 from the planet, had premiered with a victory over the American Marcos Giron (7-5 and 6-3).

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